31,294 voters shifted via illegal border revision, says PKR

PETALING JAYA, March 16 — PKR said today 31,294 voters have been moved into neighbouring constituencies illegally as border revisions must obtain a two-thirds majority of Parliament.

PKR vice-president Fuziah Salleh raised the issue at a press conference today after it was revealed yesterday that the party’s Selangor mentri besar had been moved from Petaling Jaya Selatan to Lembah Pantai.

Election Commission (EC) deputy chief Datuk Wan Ahmad Wan Omar had responded by saying Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim’s address has not been changed but the border had been corrected according to the Election Act, putting his Section 16, Petaling Jaya home in Kuala Lumpur instead of Selangor.

But Kuantan MP Fuziah (picture) pointed out that the Election Act did not allow border revisions to move voters from one constituency to another, but only to realign localities and polling districts within a constituency for administrative purposes.

“When the EC has made a mistake in drawing borders, they cannot rectify according to their whim and fancy. It should be part of a redelineation as it moves a voter from one constituency to another. But what the EC has done here is basically redelineation.

“A redelineation is due but this can only take effect with two-thirds majority of Parliament according to the Federal Constitution. By right, they should be voting in the same constituency as in 2008. The EC is once again being used by its political masters and denying us a level playing field,” she said.

Fuziah also said the parliamentary select committee on electoral reforms had told the EC it could not move constituency borders when the panel was in Penang to obtain public feedback.

She added that the 31,294 voters moved illegally were tabulated after checking electoral rolls from the March 2008 election up to the September 2011 gazette.

Wan Ahmad also said yesterday the EC had frozen all “border correction” exercises last year as political parties were exploiting the confusion.

Seputeh Umno Youth chief Mohd Razlan Muhammad Rafii had alleged in a blog posting that Khalid had become a “phantom voter” in Lembah Pantai, saying it was an inside job to sabotage the mentri besar.

Khalid would not be able to seek a second term as a Selangor assemblyman and MB as the state constitution bars a non-resident from contesting for a state seat.

However, Fuziah said this was not the case as the Ijok assemblyman’s identity card shows his current address is in Kuala Selangor, although he has not yet moved his voting address there.

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